Printing-type.



SOOTTH. PERKY, OF NIAGARA FALLS, NEW YORK.

PRINTING-TYPE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 1 1, 1909.

Application filed September 2, 1903. Serial No. 171,634e.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that l, SCOTT H. PERKY, citizen of the United States, resident of Niagara Falls, in the county of Niagara and State of New York, have made a certain new and useful invention in Printing-Type; and I declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the invention, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification.

The figure illustrates the invention with isometric type.

The invention relates to printing with movable type for reading, as inV books 'and newspapers where the inked lines of print contrast with the white or other color of the paper, and has for its object, chiefly, to ease the eyes and brain in the work of reading,

' while rendering the operation more rapid and assured.

The invention consists in certain means of printing alternate lines, whereby the reading can be done from left to right and from right to left in a continuous manner, and the skipping from the end of one line to the opposite end of the next is avoided. v

It is hardly necessary to allude to the strain upon the eyes and brain,which results from much reading. To-students, researchers and others whose lives are cast among books, any device which promises to facilitate reading in such wise as to lessen fatigue of the optical tract, and consequent headache and brain fag, will appear of unusual importance. In ordinary reading where the intelligent action of the brain is exerted through the eyes in movements from left to right with alternate senseless skippings from right to left, there are some disadvantages which have to do, not only with the irrelative exercise of the brain in finding the beginning of the new line while remembering the connection of the text, but also with the rapidly recurring reversions of the eye balls .in skipping backward, which may be compared in effect to the rapid flashes of alternate light and dark through'a paling fence as one passes by at high speed. For, while the hurtful nature of the latter is felt at once, and instinctively shunned, that of the former, although not so promptly appreciated because of education and habit, yet because of its far greater extent, is, it is not unreasonable to think, conducive of evil results of more lasting character.

ln carrying out this invention it is designed to use a font of type, whereof each type presents a face letter, number or other character, which is of symmetrical form with reference to a vertical median line, and is thus adapted to (present the same appearance whether rea backward or forward. The composition work with such type will not be more onerous than that with ordinary type, and as each letter printed from such type is of the same form wherever it appears, the revision is simplified. Type of symmetrical 'form of the character designed to be used in this connection are indicated in the alphabetical examples shown in the drawing. Such type faces are designed to show the letters each of such form that its elements extend equally on each side of the median line.

In reading print of this character, little difliculty will at first be found owing to the unaccustomed appearance of the symmetrical characters, but in a limited time, the mind becomes familiar with them and this trouble will disappear. And in the continuous hold of the eye and mind on the text, as the reading proceeds, without skipping or losing place or connection, will be found much compensation. The process of the mind in so far as the action of the eyes is concerned in reading varies much with different'persons, and for the most part, it is believed to be a more or less laborious process, in which each word must be scanned and appreciated in getting the sense of the text. The skipping action required in reading ordinary printing interferes with the mental action, which has nothing in common therewith, and it is believed to be responsible for some at least of the ailments which fall to the lot of students and others Who are much occupied in literary Work.

Having described this invention, What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Pat- A font o1c alphabet type, having the printing faces of its type consisting` each of a character Which is symmetrical With reference to the median Vertical line of such character its elements extending equally on each side of 10 such line, substantially as specified.

In testimony whereof l aliix niy signature, in presence of two Witnesses.

SCOTT H. PERRY Witnesses HERBERT C. EMERY, A. G. GEDNEY. 

